The Hunger Pains: A Parody (Harvard Lampoon)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

From the legendary comedic scholars who illuminated the tour de force Twilight so brilliantly in the New York Times bestselling Nightlight comes The Hunger Pains, a hilarious send-up of the immensely popular dystopian young adult novel, The Hunger Games.

As excitement surrounding the Spring 2012 release of the major motion picture The Hunger Games reaches a fever pitch, the Harvard Lampoon’s TheHunger Pains takes on the story of a young girl forced to join a survival contest in order to save her community in dystopian, post-apocalyptic Panem.

Beyond a scene-for-scene parody of Suzanne Collins’s book, TheHunger Pains lampoons not only Collins’s writing and characters, but cleverly tackles the themes of morality, government control, and personal independence. The Hunger Games trilogyhas sold more than 3 million copies in print; The Hunger Pains is the perfect gift for the millions of fans of the book universally hailed as addictive, exciting, poignant, complex, and brilliantly plotted.

Synopsis:

The hilarious instant New York Times bestseller, The Hunger Pains is a loving parody of the dystopian YA novel and film, The Hunger Games.

Winning means wealth, fame, and a life of therapy losing means death, but also fame! This is The Hunger Pains.

When Kantkiss Neverclean replaces her sister as a contestant on the Hunger Games—the second-highest-rated reality TV show in Peaceland, behind Extreme Home Makeover—she has no idea what to expect. Having lived her entire life in the telemarketing district’s worst neighborhood, the Crack, Kantkiss feels unprepared to fight to the death while simultaneously winking and looking adorable for the cameras. But when her survival rests on choosing between the dreamy hunk from home, Carol Handsomestein, or the doughy klutz, Pita Malarkey, Kantkiss discovers that the toughest conflicts may not be found on the battlefield but in her own heart . . . which is unfortunately on a battlefield.

About the Author

TheHarvard Lampoon debuted in February 1876 and is the world's longest continually published humor magazine. Written by seven undergraduates and modeled on Punch, the British humor magazine, the debut issue took the Harvard campus by storm. United States President Ulysses S. Grant was advised not to read the magazine, as he would be too much “in stitches” to run the government. Harvard Lampoon alumni include comedians Conan O'Brien, Andy Borowitz, Greg Daniels, Jim Downey, Al Jean, and B.J. Novak. Lampoon alumni write and have written for Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, Futurama, Late Night with David Letterman, Seinfeld, The League, NewsRadio, The Office, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation,and dozens of others. The Lampoon has also graduated many noted authors, such as George Plimpton, George Santayana, and John Updike.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Average customer rating based on 1 comment:

lilianxcheng, July 13, 2012 (view all comments by lilianxcheng)
I'm a fan of The Hunger Games series (and yes, I read it before the movie because I'm so hipster), and when I saw The Hunger Pains: A Parody at the library-I just had to grab it off the shelf. It looked like a perfect short read (though fourteen bucks for such a tiny book baffles me.) I've read The Harvard Lampoon's Twilight parody titled Nightlight , so I had an idea of what I was getting into: ridiculousness. Imagine 5% of the original Hunger Games mixed with lame fart jokes, Saturday Night Live, Jamaican accents, completely randomness, and no wit. The Hunger Pains is completely silly, the writing is laughably simplistic (reminiscent of the crazy stories I wrote as a kid with my friends), the characters borderline inane, but I enjoyed The Hunger Pains . The story was just so absurd, I couldn't help giggling at its ridiculousness: Pita (incredibly fat with manboobs and constantly needs attention) in an effort to camouflage himself, turns himself into a wedding cake. If you didn't think that was funny, this book isn't for you.

I can see readers either go one way or the other: either they embrace the randomness, or be butthurt that their favorite characters are parodied as undesirable messes.

"Synopsis"
by Firebrand,
The hilarious instant New York Times bestseller, The Hunger Pains is a loving parody of the dystopian YA novel and film, The Hunger Games.

Winning means wealth, fame, and a life of therapy losing means death, but also fame! This is The Hunger Pains.

When Kantkiss Neverclean replaces her sister as a contestant on the Hunger Games—the second-highest-rated reality TV show in Peaceland, behind Extreme Home Makeover—she has no idea what to expect. Having lived her entire life in the telemarketing district’s worst neighborhood, the Crack, Kantkiss feels unprepared to fight to the death while simultaneously winking and looking adorable for the cameras. But when her survival rests on choosing between the dreamy hunk from home, Carol Handsomestein, or the doughy klutz, Pita Malarkey, Kantkiss discovers that the toughest conflicts may not be found on the battlefield but in her own heart . . . which is unfortunately on a battlefield.

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